MichiganIt’s hardly a surprise that the fortunes of Michigan rise and fall with the automotive industry. It’s been that way for generations, even as the sector has expanded significantly across the South and elsewhere. So you know things are running smoothly in the auto sector when the state’s jobless rate (5.1 percent, Dec. 2016) settles into a healthy place within a few tenths of a percent of the national rate.

Indeed, read through the most noteworthy Michigan economic development projects revealed in 2016 and the vast majority are automotive. Many are big-dollar deals, such as the $1.5 billion investment planned in Sterling Heights by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the $1.4 billion project that Ford has on the books in Livonia. The plan in Sterling Heights is to retool in order to make the new Ram 1500 pickups. Ford’s proposal for the company’s Livonia transmission plant will support production of the F-150 and Raptor trucks. A statement from Ford’s president for the Americas, Joe Hinrichs, observed that “Ford employs more hourly workers and builds more vehicles in the United States than any other automaker,” and the Livonia plan would add another 500.

Even so, automobiles aren’t everything in Michigan. The state continues to focus attention on such sectors as aerospace, defense, cybersecurity, and agribusiness. And from a job-creation perspective, the biggest deal of the past year was an Amazon fulfillment center.

New JerseyDiversity brings prosperity, as revealed in New Jersey’s list of 2016 economic development success stories. There are headquarters projects, technology developments, energy-related operations, cabinetry and fence manufacturing as well as distribution. A little bit of everything would seem to go a long way.

The state stands to cash in on more than 2,000 financial services jobs that JPMorgan Chase is moving across the Hudson River from New York City to Jersey City. Another Manhattan export to Jersey City is apparel retailer Charles Komar & Sons. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers sailed across the Delaware River to set up a state-of-the-art headquarters and training facility in the New Jersey community of Camden, creating 250 more New Jersey jobs.

Like a number of states, New Jersey continues to benefit from the ever-expanding Amazon, which swept in with a 2,000-job announcement of new fulfillment centers in Middlesex and Burlington counties. The company already operates multiple centers in New Jersey and employed more than 5,000 people, but needed more facilities, it said, “to provide the fastest possible delivery times.”

North CarolinaAmazon’s nationwide growth includes 1,500 proposed jobs at a distribution center near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, one of North Carolina’s big 2016 announcements that helped add up to Silver Shovel honors. A nice mix of high-end projects rounded out a healthy year in the Tar Heel State.

The North Carolina economy has, in fact, been among the nation’s fastest-growing in recent years. Population is increasing and GDP growth has been through the roof, well ahead of the U.S. average. Though economists expect 2017 growth to be a bit slower, it’s still moving in a healthy direction.

Beyond Amazon, other big announcements had three-digit job figures attached to them — hundreds and hundreds of attractive jobs. Three deals were in the biotech sector that loves North Carolina, two in automotive, another in aviation, and one in telecommunications cabling. Joining those were wins in the traditional sectors of textiles and food processing.

MethodologyArea Development’s annual Gold and Silver Shovel Awards recognize states for their achievements in attracting high-value investment projects that will create a significant number of new jobs in their communities. We collected information from all 50 states about their top-10 job-creation and investment projects initiated in 2016 (only those projects that actually had monies invested, “broke ground,” began an expansion, started new hiring, etc. were considered). Based on a combination of weighted factors — including the number of new jobs to be created in relation to the state’s population, the combined dollar amount of the investments, the number of new facilities, the diversity of industry represented — five states achieving the highest weighted overall scores were awarded Area Development’s 2017 Gold Shovels in five population categories: 12+ million, 8+ to 12 million, 5+ to 8 million, 3+ to 5 million, and fewer than 3 million. Runners-up in each of these population categories were awarded 2017 Silver Shovels.